On the 18th December, 1699, the _Loyal Merchant_, Captain Lowth, East Indiaman, lying in Table Bay, saw a small vessel of sixty tons enter the harbour under English colours. This proved to be the _Margaret_ of New York. Lowth's suspicions being awakened, he sent for the captain and some of the crew, who 'confessed the whole matter,' and were promptly put in irons. The _Margaret_ was seized, in spite of Dutch protests. Two days later came in the _Vine_, pink, from St. Mary's, with a number of 'passengers' on board. These were pirates on their way to New England, to make their submission, among them Chivers and Culliford. Lowth would have seized them also, but the Dutch interfered, and the behaviour of the Dutch admiral became so threatening that Lowth cut short his stay and made sail for Bombay, which he reached safely, taking with him the _Margaret_ and eighteen prisoners. On reaching England, Culliford was tried and condemned, but respited, as has already been mentioned. While Kidd lay in Newgate awaiting trial, an Act was passed for the more effectual suppression of piracy. Experience had shown that it was useless to issue proclamations against individuals, but that some new machinery must be created to deal with the gigantic evil that threatened to become chronic. Under a former Act, passed in the reign of Henry VIII., the Lord High Admiral, or his Lieutenant, or his Commissary, had been empowered to try pirates; but the procedure had long fallen into abeyance. It had been found almost impossible to bring offenders in distant seas to justice, to say nothing of the cost and trouble of bringing them to England for trial. Now it was enacted that courts of seven persons might be formed for the trial of pirates at any place at sea or upon land, in any of his Majesty's islands, plantations, colonies, dominions, forts, or factories. It was necessary that at least one of the seven should be the chief of an English factory, the governor or a member of council in a plantation or colony, or the commander of a King's ship. These courts had powers of capital punishment, and also had power to treat all persons who gave assistance or countenance to pirates as accessories, and liable to the same punishments as pirates. The Act was to be in force for seven years only. In 1706 it was renewed for seven years, and in 1714 again for five years. The amnesty granted to some pirates, the hanging of others,[5] and the new Act of Parliament, caused a great abatement of the evil. The Madagascar settlements still flourished, but for a time European trade was free from attack. Littleton's squadron had gone home, and was replaced by two royal ships, the _Severn_ and the _Scarborough_, which effected nothing against the pirates, but served by their presence to keep them quiet.